Pages

Saturday, November 26, 2016

I have finally finished the painting of
the first two berserkers. I decided to split them up in groups of two
because my painting sessions are very brief at the moment and it seemed
more economical to paint less and achieve more than paint more and
achieve less.

I
chose to couple these two figures together in one painting session
because they are very similar in dress format - basically fur and skin.

My current method of two highlights and two lowlights seems to be paying off in the balance between quality and speed.

The bases have not been done up yet. I will work on them at the end as a unit when the other two berserkers are done.

The
other two viking berserkers have pants and wide belts so they will be
tackled next week when I wrap up with this unit and start something
else.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

I am back again with a short post on the Viking Berserkers. I left off last post with the washes on the fur areas. Today I continue working on the fur and beards and get them out of the way.

I do this for one simple reason - drybrushing! This is a great technique, but I find it very messy unless done carefully. So I like to finish all the drybrushing before I start the highlights and lowlights.

I usually drybrush with the base colour first, then gradually drybrush with lighter tones towards higher areas or areas towards the ends of the cloak.

The next step is to tip certain areas sparingly with white. Once again this is towards the edges and top areas.

The last step is to give surgical washes in brown or black along folds or lower areas to add some depth.

The same can be said for the beards, but on a smaller scale and area. Now with all the drybrushing ready and done, I will start painting on the lowest or innermost areas of the models. In this particular case it will be the leather, inner cloaks followed by the skin, but that is for another post and day.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

The Berserkers are here, the field of battle will never be the same for the other Saga factions! - If I get to play anymore games that is!

In the meantime I content myself with painting the army up. So the first step was to clean the models as best I could. Thankfully Foundry miniatures are quite well cast, and in my humble opinion, don't suffer from as many casting defects as other companies - like Warlord for example.

The next step is to give them a good primer coat. I opted for a grey primer. I use the Vallejo Grey airbrush primer as I find it very workable. I use it straight out of the pot and since it is formulated for airbrushing I hardly need to add any water to it.

When the grey primer stage was done, several defects popped out that I had not noticed before when I was working on bare metal. Naturally, I had to go back to step one and re-clean all the little oversights again and then re-prime the figures.

Before I start let me just say again that I am not a speed painter, and I do not enjoy painting armies. I am definitely a showcase painter and I like to play with painted armies but not go through the hassle of painting them up.

I say this because, although the techniques I use here are relatively fast for someone with my gaming preferences, they would not be suitable for true speed painting. I choose this approach deliberately. This system allows me to be a bit more creative and build up my armies to a certain standard without spending hours upon hours on them.

With that out of the way, the painting begins. I started off by blocking out the colours. This lets me gauge the palette I want to use, and check whether the unit looks like a unit. That is, whether or not they have a common theme. This is probably the most time consuming part of the process.

When I am satisfied with the look overall the next step is give certain areas washes. In this case it is the fur cloaks and the skin. I will start building the texture on the beards, hair and furs first. The reason is because I use a controlled drybrushing technique for these, which can get a bit messy, so I like to get them out of the way first, but that is for next week.

So I have finally surpassed the half way mark. In 7 days I will continue with these berserkers and carry on with my voyage into Saga with Phase One of my Viking Project.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

I put my Covenant of Antartica fleet on Ebay for sale. It was a sad day, but I have not played the game in over a year, and I don't see myself playing it anymore - lack of time and life in general.

Since I need the space, I decided to sell it and complete my other armies with the proceeds. The price was a bargain for a painted army, and guess what, it sold in less than 10 hours after posting it!!!

With the proceeds I completed my Space Wolf army and my Bolt Action/Konflikt'47 forces, and added some casters and solos to my new Skorne army.

I have some other stuff for sale at very reasonable prices, if you are interested please take a look-see HERE.